Who becomes America’s
President is every one’s concern. This
is the reason the whole world will focus
its attention on the dominance
forth-coming American presidential
elections in the United States of
America.
Over a hundred years ago, many men and
women fought to maintain its oneness and
political union. The federalists were
thinkers, erudite men, whose political
writings have been quoted for centuries.
Their ideas did not only build America,
but served as indices for political
engineering and statecraft.
Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton,
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln were
statesmen. They trusted in God and this
was enshrined in the American Dollar.
God prospered Americans.
Barack Obama possesses those qualities
and erudition of American founding
fathers.Unecumbered by America’s past
imperialist culture and geo-political
attitudes, he successfully extricated
the US from its economic down-turn and
turnaround the sector of the economy
that could still be redeemed.
As a democrat, he has matured
inexorably. He has pushed through social
democratic policies, in keeping with his
campaign promises. Obama is not a
socialist. He is imbued with the concern
for social justice, social equity and
the democratic principles that sustain
the national interest in a democratic
society.
Immediate past American presidents
seemed to believe that America is a
peaceful nation, which must fight wars
to prove it.
Obama has shown that he is capable of
dealing with US enemies and that
defending America is a matter for
intelligent choices and not restricted
to the butcher’s solution only.
President Obama did not create America’s
financial and strategic problems. He has
used his ingenuity and audacity to solve
many lingering domestic and
international problems. This is good for
America
The American people are impatient with
the Tea Party musings and the
obstructionist Republican stratagems to
frustrate the Obama administration.
It has become obvious that Republicanism
has become an anachronism. In this age,
when states are striving to solve
socio-economic problems and cater for
all citizens; it becomes difficult to
see how a party made up of rich men and
women can bring themselves to work to
uplift the poor, the marginalized
under-achievers and those crawl about in
society.
The mental inheritance of Republicans is
indifferent to the other social class.
Any policies that are fashioned to
ameliorate the conditions of the working
class are frown upon. The Republicans
have perfected the art of name-calling,
which is aimed at instilling fear into
the property-owning class that Obama is
bent on the socialization of their
societal advantages.
This campaign does not add up as the
economic status of the middle class has
grown progressively worse, not only in
America, but also in Europe.
Having frittered away America’s wealth
in fighting wars that only satisfied the
geo-political interest of the
military/industrial complex, Republicans
should find ways to co-operate to find
solutions that would bring back the
prosperity America once enjoyed
Under the Obama administration, race
relations seem to have improved. Those
who seem to question the Creator of the
Universe as to why he created different
people may never get an answer. Any
doctrine on race differentiation is
flawed, morally unjust and socially and
morally condemnable.
America has strategic concerns in the
Middle East and in North Korea and Iran.
He had promised to look into the
Israeli/Palestinian issues, with little
success, should not give up his efforts.
We all know that the problems are
intractable.
President Obama may wish to exercise
restraint in his involvement with the
elections of a new President in Russia.
If Putin loses, the Communist Party of
Russia will be in government and a new
ideological political era will be
re-kindled. This will lead to antiquated
rivalry and the pursuit of narrow
interests.
President Obama may wish to change the
US diplomacy in dealing with the new
situation in North Korea and with the
new Chinese leaders, who are more
urbane, well-schooled and knowledgeable
about China/US complex relations.
The new Obama administration should
relate more closely to Africa in all
spheres of political, economic and
diplomatic relations. America cannot
complain about China’s involvement in
Africa, while staying away from the new
economic and investment potentials the
continent now offers. The evidence can
be seen in Equatorial Guinea, Angola and
Botswana. Congo is a gold-mine and its
diamonds are very good collaterals, that
can guarantee heavy capital outlay for
any state that seizes the opportunities
available.
Recently, Obama participated in the
Pacific/Asean economic forum, in order
to widen American trading orbit. His
participations in the G& and G8 summits
are always constructive. He quickly sees
a point and he addresses issues with a
masterly pose and not the belligerence
of a Texas cowboy.
Obama’s social policies like
health-care, equitable taxation, housing
and prison reforms are to ensure social
stability.
If these issues are not addressed now,
they may accentuate the social disorder,
inherent in systems that neglect the
needy. The “Occupy Wall Street”
phenomenon was a surprise. The American
citizens, who expressed their discontent
in such agonizing way, may vote for the
Republican Party.
The social media is awash with
protestations that the Republicans may
score points as critics of Obama, but
are losing heavily since they have not
provided alternative solutions to
America’s social progress.
Hispanics, African Americans, left-wing
intellectuals, disgruntled Republicans
and fair-minded voters will support
Obama for a second term.
Women voters, who suffer from disparity
in wages and old people, who are in need
of medical -care, will support Obama.
Young Americans, who identify with the
progressive politics of Barack Obama,
will both campaign and also vote for
him.
The Republicans will rely mainly on the
support of fringe extremists, who have
sworn not to look at the evidence of
Obama’s performance on the job, but
would react to their prejudices in their
choice.
In an article I published in The
Guardian, in January, 2009, I wrote that
“there those, who would not be impressed
by what ever does or does not do” The
trenchant criticisms by the Republican
Chiefs and the Tea Party political
mal-contents support my predictions of
2009.
Obama enjoys the goodwill of the
ordinary members of the international
community and this will weigh heavily on
American voters.Obama relates
successfully with other world leaders
excluding those, who want him to solve
age-old, antiquated rivalries that defy
rational judgment.
Republicanism is seen as rich, spoilt
men, with their noses in the air. There
is that far-away look in their eyes
which is meant to remind lesser mortals
that they operate on a different wave
length.
While I was teaching a course on Human
Rights at the University of Michigan at
Ann Arbor, the then Nigerian Minister of
Foreign Affairs, General Ike Nwachukwu
invited me to attend the Republican
Convention in Houston, Texas, in 1992.
Some affluent members of the Republican
Party came in their private jets, which
carried their Rolls Royce cars. Their
wives were decked in diamonds and the
men wore gold button jackets. This close
encounter with capitalist opulence was
very impressive.
I wished that the American society can
be so structured to enable a majority to
fairly acquire such wealth, and display
their treasures.
It is no longer possible to retain the
social inequalities in America. Die
Fetten Jahren sind vorbei! The world has
changed in many ways and America cannot
pretend that “It is alright Jack”.
The Republican candidates may be opulent
and can throw cash around but they do
not have the qualities of acceptability,
which Obama possesses, in the Era of the
Gentiles, Atonement and the Brotherhood
of Man.
Obama’s presidency has put a stop to the
maltreatment of “BLACKS” by law
enforcement agents, who in the past
associated every black person with
criminal tendencies. We still remember
the Rodney King episode!
The minorities have been given
responsible positions contrary to the
practice of the past. Minorities now
walk tall on the sunny side of the
streets of America.
Banks are now more liberal in their loan
policies. More minorities are prospering
without making it obvious. The social
justice policy must gain acceleration in
the direction of a new social order.
In defiance of Republican frenzied cries
of a socialist take-over of America, the
Democratic Party should push to
establish an egalitarian society, in
which those who fly should be given more
wings, but those who crawl or who do not
move at all,( Don Williams)should be
catered for.
A democratic society, which ignores the
silent majority that suffer neglect,
will regret, the spring rolls, winters
of discontent or the golden autumn winds
blow away the greedy and unfeeling
noblemen. Social justice stabilizes any
socio-economic system.
In America, there is a deep-rooted
misconception about socialism. This is
the consequence of years of
misinformation and disinformation on the
social science philosophy that
propagates the virtues of social
consciousness, social justice and
egalitarianism.
During the Cold war years, a school came
into existence in the United States that
had the immaculate duty to discredit
socialism in magazines, in lectures,
books, films and other mass culture
hits.
Class struggle was portrayed as a
revolutionary tendency that would rob
the rich to pay the poor, a sort of
Robin Hood-like worldview. Socialism was
associated with dictatorship, violation
of human rights, orthodoxy, ruthlessness
and a conscious policy to raise
revolutionaries to overthrow their
governments.
The Arabs and North Africans, who have
overthrown their decadent oppressors,
are not socialists, but socially-minded
individuals, who could no longer stand
the decadence of monarchic dynasties and
sell-out of state power to foreign
centers of control and manipulation.
Some academics, with grasshopper minds
seem to have designed belligerent
policies for America that ended in
critical failures. I will illustrate my
thesis thus.
In the 1990’s, America adopted the
policy of helping the Taliban to rout
the Soviets from Afghanistan. The
Taliban has now turned against the
American installed government in Kabul,
leading to colossal waste of financial
and human resources.
The Americans groomed Osama Bin Laden,
who later turned against America,
causing damage to its economic and
political power-base. Then the US
groomed Saddam Hussein, armed him to
fight Iran. At the end of it all,
America spent colossal financial and
human resources in Iraq, only to push
Iraq into the bosom of Iranian Shiites.
Iran has become a regional super-power
and now can hold its own.
Recently, Western Intelligence Agencies
are publicly saying that Al Qaeda sent
jihadists to Libya, but Kaddafi himself
had said in a press conference that he
had refused to let Al Qaeda operate from
Libya. If it is true that the jihadists
were sent to Libya, then, NATO paved
that way.
Anti-China propaganda, robbed the US of
a golden opportunity to engage China in
bilateral trade relations in the 1960’s,
only to now borrow from the Communist
state, in humiliating circumstances.
The failed attempt to export the
American way of life, the jeans culture,
rock’n roll and soul music had only
temporary success, because more serious
issues have beset the world and its
people.
There was a veiled attempt to contain
those nations and leaders, who were seen
as non-conformists. This was the reason
behind Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma,
Grenada, Cuba, Nicaragua, Chile, Congo,
Korea etc.
The simplistic and at once arrogant
policy of conquest manifested itself in
the saying that “there is no Panama
Canal but that there is an American
canal in Panama.” Noriega became a
victim of circumstances.
President Obama has deviated from this
imperialistic mind-set of America. He
has dispelled the fear in the world that
America is a peaceful state, which must
occasionally go to war to prove it.
How could the Republicans not know that
you cannot fight wars without depleting
the American treasury? How would they
convince anyone that it was Obama, who
initiated right-wing policies of
belligerency that has bankrupt America?
What else do they want and what else can
they offer?
Republican McCain understands a lot of
American politics, but cannot resist the
use of war as instrument of national
policy. He should review the
Brian/Kellogg Pact of 1928 and tell us
what is wrong in adopting the provisions
of that Pact.
The Democratic Party is more likely to
give the relevant impetus for America to
move forward, than a Party that lives in
the past. The social media in this
technological age will play a major role
in Obama’s re-election strategies.
I hope that during the electioneering
campaigns, Jonathan Mann will not recite
his “Someone could get hurt” mantra and
that his “Political Mann “programme will
not resurrect. Whatever his motives
were, he failed in his intentions.
There are Americans, who will vote for
Obama based on a reasoned assessment of
his performance so far. They are agreed
that he deserves a second term to
advance the cause he has so well pushed
with audacity, hope and tenacity of
purpose.
If unreason prevails, the “Occupy Wall
Street “campaign could find reason to
re-enact its anti-greed and
anti-conservative protests.
These customized views are strongly held
and I hope that a New America will get
into motion to reclaim the years the
locusts ate up.
The present Iran/US disagreement over
the Strait of Hormuz should find a
diplomatic solution, and so, should
disagreements between Israel and Iran.
2012 could be a year of peaceful
co-existence or a year in which
conflicts of serious nature could play
themselves out to the detriment of the
race.2012 will be a year in which only
diplomacy and good judgment will save
mankind,
In Egypt, the heady days of optimism
seem to be over as reports say that the
NDI and other NGO’s in Cairo were
raided. The Egyptian authorities are
reported to have promised to stop the
raids.
The emergence of Islamic parties in
North Africa and the Middle East could
pave the way for popular
administrations, whose actions may not
be in tandem with Western expectations.
If, however, the people approve of their
actions, it will be difficult to stop
the popular movement towards a peculiar
Arab democracy.
Among my New Year messages, I found a
note from a Hellenistic mystic, Christos
Papadopoulos, who asked. “Who are you?”
I answered, “I am from Adachi Kingdom,
in Fugar, Edo State Nigeria. I am a
Professor of International Law, the
Academic Chancellor of BOSAS
International Law Bureau, the President
of the proposed Afemai University, Fugar,
a Pastoral Intercessor in the Glorious
Church, an essayist, an author, a
polemicist and a good husband to
Barrister Mrs. Elizabeth Ngozi
Esiemokhai, the Legal Adviser of Nigeria
Re-insurance Corporation, Abuja.,
Nigeria. May the blessings of Almighty
God, the King of kings and the Lord of
Lords establish HIS REIGN on Earth,
Amen, Amen and Amen!!!
The re-election of President Barack
Obama will give the United States and
its people the opportunity to rekindle
the values enshrined in the Constitution
of the United States of America. People
everywhere will breathe a sigh of relief
that the world will not abruptly come to
an end, as a result of hard attitudes
that inflame passions in international
affairs. All the Churches in America are
interceding for world peace, so that all
can enjoy the increase of God’s Glory.